Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness

16 reviews

fkshg8465's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

These two make the best fictional power couple. Yes, I am bothered by the women’s to requirement to obey their husbands per vampire laws, but it’s clear there’s a lot of room for interpretation, at least with Diana and Matthew. Really excited to see what the fourth book will bring. Three weeks left to wait at the library.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

siglerbooknook's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

!!!CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS!!!

This book has proved complicated to review. I have many conflicting thoughts and feelings now that I've finished the whole story.

While the ending wasn't completely satisfying it does make sense, both with the plot, and with the way the main characters have been built. Several goals from all 3 books felt very rushed. Big bads that have been overwhelmingly powerful for 3 books were a cliffnote in the ending.

Of all the characters in the book I liked Diana and Matthew the least. Their personalities while well rounded, are very similar to how they were in the beginning of the first book. I don't feel like they grew much. By this book I felt like Matthew should have learned to have some faith in Diana and Diana should stop second guessing everything.
The side characters however, completely make up for it. I love almost every other character in the book, even if some feel like completely different people from the last time we saw them.

I felt like the plot dragged a little in the middle. We spend the entire second book on Diana learning to use her magic, so further learning in this book felt repetitive. I didn't really need to know how she comes up with words and ingredients for spells multiple times to understand she was growing as a witch.

I did love the big reveal at the end. Harkness does a wonderful job pulling all the tiny clues together. Any detail can be tied back to the reveal beautifully. I do wish she'd answered a few of the broader questions in a little more detail, like what daemons, witches, and vampires are.

Over all I enjoyed the story and am mostly satisfied with the ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Torture, Violence, and Stalking

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Eating disorder, Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Kidnapping

kirjakimalainen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I enjoyed the story and writing itself, but there were things added just for shock value that came out of nowhere compared to earlier books (see content warnings)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Xenophobia, Medical content, Trafficking, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, and War

Minor: Ableism and Racial slurs

Unnecessary detail into rape as torture in a medical setting (graphic). Threaths of raping/killing/hurting children. G-slur against Romani people used once. The name of the only disabled character is "Cripplegate" (minor character). Random medical malpractice, justifying alcohol use during pregnancy (minor). Abusive/toxic family members (moderate). Holocaust/Nazis (graphic)

laurenfink's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I really love this series but it’s just a little to convenient how some of the plot lines work out

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Pregnancy

madelinelsmith's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse

Minor: Rape

megan_martha_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Great conclusion to the series, felt sad to see them all go. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, and Torture

redheadsuperpowers's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I stick by my description of this series as Twilight for adults, but it's so well written, and I enjoyed this close to the series so much. It tied up all the major plot points, and the minor ones left open are likely to close with the next series set in this universe. (The first of those books is out!) The relationship between the main characters, Diana and Matthew, settles some, easing how annoyed I was with male lead in the second book. The family moments were many, and one scene made me cry. I was disappointed with one major plot point though. It's a spoiler, so I won't share it, but I was like 'wait, what? Why? Who?' and the book did not answer that point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, and Pregnancy

euphemiajo's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Miscarriage, Blood, and Pregnancy

Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Deportation

artmajorese's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I mostly picked this one up because I'm a completionist, I needed something to do on a 5-hour flight, and I had already powered through book 2. To my surprise, I enjoyed reading the book!  Expect a convoluted plot, which to me felt a little bit un-earned in its resolution. Most of the book is spent doing things OTHER than solving the central problem.  But if you can suspend your disbelief, you'll find some fun character development moments and (finally) the answer to "what's the deal with Ashmore 782?"

Heads up that the main subplot contains a lot of sexual violence, including incest and sexual violence against children.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Physical abuse, Torture, and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

katvou's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infertility, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual content, and Sexual violence